Men O'War (1929)

Director: Lewis R. Foster

Writers: H.M. Walker, Leo McCarey

Composer: stock music

Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Anne Cornwall, Harry Bernard, Baldwin Cooke, Pete Gordon, Gloria Greer, Charlie Hall

More info: IMDb

Plot: Two sailors on leave, Stanley and Oliver meet two girls at a park and invite them to have a soda. Unfortunately, the boys have only enough money to split theirs, a point which Oliver can't seem to get across to his friend. That problem is solved when Stanley hits the jackpot on a slot machine. Now with enough money to hire a boat, they start a battle-royal with other boaters, with everybody eventually winding up in the lake.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

This was fun.  The payoff on the sassafrass soda bit was worth the long setup.  And the end was fun. It's amazing how many people you can fit in a boat before it sinks.  What's remarkable is that the film makers had to experiment with the number of people and what the tipping point would be for the final guy (the one who rented the bot to The Boys) to make it all happen.  I wonder how many takes it took.  It's quite a feat regardless.